{"id":30010,"date":"2026-09-29T13:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=30010"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:41:19","slug":"sissinghurst-castle-and-gardens-kent-and-vita-sackville-west","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=30010","title":{"rendered":"Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\" \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08 Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West<\/strong><\/p>\n

Love at First Sight\u00a0 \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

As with most other writers and their homes in this series, Vita Sackville-West fell in love with Sissinghurst at first sight.\u00a0 She claimed \u2018I saw what might be made of it.\u00a0 It was Sleeping Beauty\u2019s castle\u2026\u2019 The castle, near Cranbrook in Kent, had been owned by Vita\u2019s Sackville ancestors, which gave it an added attraction for her given her desolation at being unable, through Salic law, to inherit the family\u2019s Elizabethan pile at Knole.<\/p>\n

A Potted (Potting?) History<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\" Like Knole, Sissinghurst Castle, was principally Elizabethan.\u00a0 It had ancient origins (\u2018hurst\u2019 is the Saxon word for \u2018wood\u2019) and evolved from a pig farm into a medieval moated manor house owned by the de Saxinghertes (only part of the moat remains).\u00a0 During the 1530s, the daughter of the (by now, Baker) family married Thomas Sackville, 1st<\/sup> Early of Dorset, and her family enlarged the property into a magnificent renaissance courtyard house with vaulted gallery and 37 chimneys centred around the tower, surrounding these with a deer park.\u00a0 Two monarchs visited Sissinghurst: Edward 1 in 1305 and Elizabeth 1st<\/sup> in 1573.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The house fell into disrepair during the Civil War.\u00a0 In the 1760s, it was used to house 3,000 rather destructive French prisoners from the Seven Years\u2019 War. \u00a0In the 1790s Sissinghurst was used as a Poor House for up to 100 men!\u00a0 Things improved under the Mann Cornwallis family in the early 1800s but the decline then continued as the bricks and stone were taken for local building.\u00a0 In the Victorian era, the focus at Sissinghurst was its farmland so, unlike Knole, by the 1930s Sissinghurst was a ruin, up for sale for \u00a312,000 and requiring enormous amounts of restoration to the house (and clearing to the garden).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harold and Vita at Sissinghust\"\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1930, Vita and her husband Harold Nicolson acquired Sissinghurst Castle and moved in with their two boys.<\/p>\n

Her passion was just as well given none of the buildings was habitable.\u00a0 They had been used for decades as accommodation for farm workers and the gardens were full of rubbish apart from the areas for vegetables grown to feed said farm workers.<\/p>\n

Vita had to start writing again as Harold had retired and no longer received his diplomatic salary \u2013 and they had fees for Eton to pay for.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Nicolsons took the ruined Elizabethan hall, tumbled sections of wall, and picturesque stand-alone dual tower and transformed them into a romantic home.\u00a0 The ancient architecture in warm clay brick was gradually softened by lush planting of the flowers Vita loved, artfully enhanced by\u00a0Harold\u2019s more formal structuring using classical lines and geometric patterns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Impact on Garden Design<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vita\u2019s Key principles<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ruthlessness: <\/strong>if it doesn\u2019t please, change it.\"\"<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Welcome Untidiness: <\/strong>allow plants to self-seed where they wish, including wild ones, if the effect pleases you.<\/li>\n
  3. Have three plans for a space: <\/strong>architectural, colour, seasonal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Vita\u2019s \u2013 then very experimental \u2013 idea in her quest for an intimate and private space was to create a series of \u2018rooms\u2019 within the garden so that the eye would not be able to comprehend the whole in one glance, and visitors would be drawn from space to space by tantalising glimpses of delights beyond. \u00a0From Vita\u2019s wonderful tower writing room (and eerie), she could look down on the arrangement and absorb the patterns and beauty of these outdoor rooms.<\/p>\n

    Although an amateur gardener, Vita had learned by experiment at\"\" her previous\u00a0garden.\u00a0 At Sissinghurst, she and Harold created the renowned \u2018White Garden\u2019, the Rose Garden, Orchard, Cottage Garden and Nuttery amongst others. \u00a0Her idea of working with a single or restrained palette of colours in the different \u2018rooms\u2019 placed great emphasis on texture, and the Nicolsons delighted in the perennial challenge of finding combinations that pleased them.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Vita\u2019s gardening column provided an expression \"\"of her own learning and experiments with horticulture that was extremely popular and drew many visitors to what became one of the most famous gardens in the UK.<\/p>\n

    The Nicolsons also entertained a raft of literary, artistic and political friends at Sissinghurst through their aristocratic and bohemian Bloomsbury connections, sharing their design ideas and inspiring other gardeners.<\/p>\n

    The garden was first opened to the public in 1938.\u00a0 Vita coined the term \u2018shillingses\u2019 for the people who put a shilling in an old tobacco tin to see her transformation of the space.<\/p>\n

    During WW2, the Women\u2019s Land Army maintained milk production for the country by tending and milking herds of cows and by the 1950s Sissinghurst was a working farm.\u00a0 As might be expected of a woman of her energy and passion, Vita was thoroughly involved.<\/p>\n

    Acquisition by the National Trust<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"Vita became a founder member of the National Trust\u2019s garden committee in 1948.\u00a0 After Harold died in 1968, the family gave the property to the National Trust, which allowed the Nicolson descendants the left wing of the long house in perpetuity.\u00a0 The current inhabitant is married to horticulturalist, Sarah Raven, whose beautiful Perch Hill Farm (below) in nearby East Sussex, is also a joy for gardenistas.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \u00a9www.PropertySurveying.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08 Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West Love at First Sight\u00a0 As with most other writers and their homes in this series, Vita Sackville-West fell in love with Sissinghurst at first sight.\u00a0 She claimed \u2018I saw what might be made of it.\u00a0 It was Sleeping Beauty\u2019s castle\u2026\u2019 The castle, near Cranbrook … Continue reading “Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"folder":[],"class_list":["post-30010","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West - Property Surveying NEWSLETTER<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=30010\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, Kent, and Vita Sackville-West - 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